Deviation
by FrodoBaggins88
Summary: When a battle wound renders Max in need of help, Logan takes her in. Old flames are rekindled, but will it last? Sometimes the inevitable can only be hindered, not avoided completely. Max&Logan. AU. Post series. R&R, please.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Dark Angel or any of the characters contained within this fic thus far. I am only borrowing them to satisfy the demanding plot bunnies. I am not in any way making profit off this fic. Also, the dialogue in the first section is from the transcript of the episode "Hello, Goodbye."

**A/N:** This is my first Dark Angel fic, so I'm still getting the hang of things. Hopefully my character voices aren't too off. Considering I haven't been able to see the whole series yet or even "Hello, Goodbye," the actions voiced are my own approximations of what they might have done. Hope you enjoy!

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**Deviation**

_by Frodo Baggins 88_

**That Old Flame Still Burns**

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_Through the still, silent night Max Guevera always preferred to move. What it was about the night, Logan Cale could never understand. It also seemed she had been avoiding him now that the first time he was finding her in his home since that horrid excuse of a break up over the phone and seeing her and Alec together was now, as he sat a glass down, reaching up to flip the switch, knowing he would catch her off guard despite the slight disorientation it gave him, having been sitting in the darkness for so long now._

_"Hi there!" was the exclamation he gave, watching her back straighten and eyes ever-so-slightly move towards him as he watched her, head inclined with mock interest as though trying to figure what she had been hanging on his bulletin board._

_"The lights were out. I didn't know you were home," Max answered, voice masking the slight surprise she had at finding him here, awake at this hour without lights._

_"'Cause if you did, you wouldn't have come, huh?" he asked, staring down at the bottle he had, hand moving to curve around it, glancing over at Max for a second as he heard her soft voice sound once more. No matter how much he didn't want it to, it still made his body slightly perk up just to hear it._

_"I found this around Joshua's neck. He said Father gave it to him. It's the same symbol the breeding cult uses."_

'_Figures,' he thought as he picked up the bottle, pouring into his glass, raising a brow slightly as he looked up at her after setting the bottle down. "So Sandeman is one of White's cult loonies, huh? Woo-hoo." Real enthusiastic he was about work right now…not. For once in his life, he could care less about work, could care less about Eyes Only, could care less about Manticore, could care less about transgenics, and certainly could care less about living. What did he have anymore?_

_"Logan, there's a connection between the breeding cult and Manticore," Max answered, and Logan stood, smirking slightly as he began to walk towards her._

_"Maybe I oughta do an Eyes Only hack, huh? I mean, this is a big news day. In case you hadn't noticed, I tried paging you. Wanted to talk to you, but, uh...guess you were busy," he replied, hint of unease evident in his voice, even if his face remained as it was._

_"I'm going. I just thought you wanted to know." Apparently Max was done talking. Apparently she was going to just let this be it, never talk to him again. Well, like he had told her on the phone, it was his life on the line; he was the one who took the risk with that damned virus._

_Logan watched as Max turned to leave, deciding he wasn't ready for her to leave yet, rushing to get in front of her and blocking her path. The look of annoyance was evident in her face though her voice displayed that she meant business, as she demanded, "Cut it out."_

_"I could keep you here all night," he said, hands out on either side, while she stood with arms crossed and weight slightly back on one leg._

_"Come on, Logan."_

_"At least 'til I drop dead," he continued, letting out a chuckle that sounded more like a scoff than anything else._

_"I've said everything I needed to say," Max insisted, standing straight again, hands resting against her hips._

_"I don't think so. I think there's something else," Logan answered stubbornly, vision of Max with Alec's arm around her shoulders, his lips planting a kiss on her forehead…touch, the one thing he desired to do, but they couldn't even do so much as hold hands. Put a damper on things, sure. Made it difficult at tenser moments whether emotional or sexual._

_" Logan..." her soft voice plead, eyes glancing away, shaking her head slowly._

_"Or is it someone else?" he continued, giving a shrug._

_"What?" she scoffed, big, brown eyes returning to his face in disbelief._

_"I needed to talk to you, so I came by your apartment...and I saw him leaving," Logan responded, though at her look his voice had come to somehow falter uncertainly. Silence caused him to stumble on, "I--I mean, if I've got it wrong, just say so." Still, she had not done anything to ease his mind. "Tell me it's not true," he plead, fighting off the urge to place hands on her shoulders and force Max to look him in the eyes._

_Finally, after the awkward silence had continued for a little while longer, her voice came softly, "I can't." And then, after a pause, more certainly it plundered on as she pushed her way past him rather quickly. "It's over. We're done. Get used to it."_

'Get used to it?' Yeah, Logan was doing a great job at that. He may have promised her that he had her back no matter what and for years had managed to live on as just friends with Max, even proceeding to give in and let Asha try to become a replacement, his rebound relationship that had lasted four years so far. Certainly, Asha was…nice enough, but she was no Max, and at times when he had held her in his arms in the darkness, he had quietly pretended it was Max he was holding, not Asha.

In fact, as the blonde lay with her arm across his bare chest, head resting on his chest/shoulder area, his arm around her, hand resting on her shoulder toying with the thin strap of her black satin nightgown as she slept, he was staring at the ceiling thinking about Max. He had no recollection how Asha had come to be there beside him at the moment, as he had once again been consumed by his Eyes Only research in the office of his new apartment while she had slept. His mind had totally spaced out on the fact that she had asked him to come to bed with her and his promise of, "Five minutes."

He had felt somewhat guilty when he had found the wine resting in the chilling bucket, two glasses beside it and her sleeping form in a short, black negligee, but he had got over it and climbed into bed, falling asleep only a few moments later. But now he was awake and wanted up, but he did not exactly want Asha up at the moment. He wanted to be alone, to remember, to think, to collect himself. It was not often that he allowed himself to dwell on his secret, undeniable longing, but this morning at five was apparently the time he would allow himself to do so.

It seemed the blonde had read his mind as she rolled, his arm complying and moving out of the way, waiting until she was settled and her breathing steady and slow once more before getting up and grabbing some khaki, casual, no-wrinkle pants from his closet and a blue, long-sleeved shirt from his closet and some underwear from his dresser drawer. He headed into his bathroom and proceeded to start the tub water after closing the door, stripping of his clothes and brushing his teeth as he waited for the water to heat up. Finally deeming it hot enough and finishing with his teeth, Logan stepped into the tub, pulling the device to turn on the showerhead.

The quickly cascading warm water hit his chest and part of his face as it came out, cold for but an instant. He turned, back against it, letting it run through his short hair, just enjoying the comfort and familiarity of the feeling. It was the one thing that had remained constant through his life, the one thing that had never changed despite the pulse of 2009. His father had died before it in 2001, and his mother had died post-pulse in the chaos-ruled world that lasted until the government had turned on them.

Everything after that had been completely different from him. He had, naturally, grieved, but he had forced it away, not wanting to have to deal with it. He had never wanted to experience loss again, but he had, though not as severely, when Max had dumped him, ditched him for Alec. Yet, he had forgiven her for that for the most part. He certainly didn't begrudge her it, at least.

He let out a sigh as he reached for the soap and his washrag, putting some soap on it and setting the bar back down, rag in hand as he ran it over his arms, beginning to clean himself. If only he could get rid of bad memories as easily as he could dirt from his body. Then, life would be perfect, but that apparently was not meant to be while on this earth. Apparently, misery was a part of life no matter who one was or the connections and money he had.

He let the water flow over him once again as he stepped back under it, letting the soap wash off him, grabbing some shampoo to clean his oily hair, placing it in his hand and running his fingers over his head, rubbing the plasma-like substance through his hair, rinsing it out after a few seconds. Clearing his throat, he turned around, turning the handle to the right to shut off the water. He straightened as it shut off, opening the shower door. The warm, vaporous steam began to flow through the bathroom. To anyone but Logan, who was by now used to the heat, it would feel like he had tried to make the room a sauna.

He swiftly grabbed his towel from the rack that went across the sliding glass doors of the tub area, drying off and stepping out onto the towel over the floor after tossing one side of his it out while he held the other end in his hands. He bent down, bringing up the ends and toweling off the top of his feet, finally stepping off the towel and wrapping it around his waist, walking over to the medicine cabinet, pulling out his tri-razor shaver and plugging it in, staring at what little of his face he could see in the steamed mirror as he set the device down for a moment, grabbing the roll of paper towels he kept with his cleaning products out from the cabinet beneath the sink and wiping the steam off, which caused it to act like water across the glass surface.

He pulled the shaving cream out after flipping on the fan, having forgot to turn it on before the shower. It didn't really matter anyway, seeing as it rarely helped keep the mirrors cleared off. He began to place it on and then turned on his shaver, running it along his grizzly face. He'd not been out often of late, and so his beard was longer than usual. It was during this process that he felt two slender arms slip around his waist and lips tenderly give a kiss to his spine before the face of the woman behind him turned and rested against his back.

"Missed you last night," she said, feeling Logan's muscles move as his hand moved the razor about, though he seemed somehow to her to tense up.

"Yeah, sorry about that…got bu—"

"Got busy with work," she cut in, raising her head from him and bringing her hands up to his shoulders, resting them there for now. "You always do. Makes me wonder if you even really care. Seems your love for your work comes first and then me. Makes a girl kind of lonely sometimes." She smiled slightly at their reflections in the mirror, using it to meet his eyes.

"I know, but—"

"You're tense, Logan," she said, beginning to massage his muscles, planting a soft kiss upon his skin from time to time.

"Not now, Asha," Logan told her, putting down his razor, being finished anyway. "I have work. People to talk to, others to see. Got to get the information for the boss." He turned on the water in the sink, leaning over to rinse off what residue was left from the shaving cream.

"You'd think 'Eyes Only' would let you off the hook. It's been four years since Ames White was taken down. There isn't anything to worry about. Besides, there hasn't even been an Eyes Only bulletin for a little longer than four years."

"Yeah, well, hear tale he got his stuff trashed just like I did," Logan replied, voice somewhat upset in tone, coming up and turning around after wiping his face off with the hand towel, Asha replacing her hands on his shoulders, her brown eyes looking into his hazel.

"Is that so?" she asked, shaking her head and letting out a sigh. "Well, if that's the case, he can't get a broadcast up anymore than you could. Figure he'd let you off for one night, that maybe for once you'd remember our 'Anniversary.' Did you even realize that last night marked four years of us dating?"

"Yes, I know, and I'll make it up to you. I promise. I—"

"Yeah, that's what you always say, Logan. For once, I'd like to see you actually stay true to your word. Meet me at Carol's tonight for dinner, alright?" She gave him a stern look and Logan nodded.

"I'll be there."

"You better be," Asha answered, letting her hands fall from him as she walked out of the bathroom, Logan letting out a bit of a sigh and mouthing, "Ok…"

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_TBC..._


End file.
